Value of memorial cat-helicopter increases tenfold

Click on the poster to see the Orville-copter || Not great for cat lovers

The value of a Dutch work of art that transformed a dead cat into a remote controlled helicopter has increased almost tenfold after generating worldwide headlines – and controversy.

Bart Jansen, the artist, is expected to turn a tidy profit after stuffing his cat Orville after it was run over by a car before attaching motors and propellers to turn his pet into an airborne work of art.

Mr Jansen had originally put a £8,000 price tag on cat helicopter, which was on display in Amsterdam as part of the KunstRai art fair but Dutch newspaper Volkskrant today reported that its value has soared.

“The work has not yet been sold but we have an offer of €100,000 on the table,” Mr Jansen’s dealer Geoffrey van Vugt told the newspaper.

Volkskrant reported that Mr Jansen decided to turn Orville into an aircraft because his pet cat and its brother Wilbur, which is still alive, had been named after the Wright brothers who invented and built the world’s first successful plane.

Some folks like to have their late companion animal around after they die. How they go about that really is just another part of the culture they live in.

Most Americans don’t know that Roy Rogers had Trigger stuffed and kept him in the living room after he died. No surprise in the American West. Though adding propellors to your late cat-companion is a bit much, I agree.